My chest stalled. “What about her?”
When I got beyond the mechanics of the Wonderland of Lights, I could hear the raised voices. In the heart of the village path a crowd had converged. They were bottlenecked at the food stations.
“Rudolph,” I said under my breath and took off.
“Did you say Rudolph?” Molly caught up with me.
“Yeah. Amber was worried about her fans causing a problem. I told her if she got into trouble to remember Rudolph.”
We ran into a wall of wailing teenagers. Arms were up with phones recording.
“Dear God.” Molly’s horrified reaction only amped mine up.
“Where’s Amber?”
The walkie at my hip went off again. “Boss?”
I unhooked it. “Yeah, this is Tate.”
“We have a situation at Rudolph.”
“I’m on my way.”
“We need more than you.” Came the panicked voice.
I raised my voice. “Please make way. You’re causing a hazard.”
No one moved. In fact, the crowd seemed to multiply as more people came up the path, and others came down from the upper hill where the photo stations were.
I switched the channel on my walkie to the emergency line. “All hands at Rudolph. I need help with crowd control.”
Tears and shouts were echoing around us. Some that were obviously upset to get near Amber, and others simply because of the crush of bodies.
My heart hammered. I lifted the walkie. “Does anyone have Amber?”
“Trying,” came a frustrated voice. “She’s trapped against the doors. We can’t get them opened to let her in.”
I waded into the crowd, trying to calm people but there wasn’t any use. At this point, I just had to get to Amber before the crowd tore her apart.
Tore the building apart.
While the sheds were structurally sound, they were still small units.
Molly was shouldering her way through the predominantly female throng of people. The window that was usually open, was shuttered as people hammered at the windows and doors.
“Back up!” My voice was a roar.
“Tate.”
I almost missed her voice it was so low and scared, but I knew her voice anywhere.
I snaked through the crush, pushing back with the bulk of my body. She and James were backed against the door as the whole shed trembled with the force of the people coming at her.
Her gray eyes were saucers as she fought to try and get the door open, but there was no clearance. The doors opened out and there was no way to get even an inch to spare.
Finally, through sheer will, I got in front of her and pushed back people enough to get the door open.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as fear leached the color out of her face.
